Systems: Herta Ottolenghi Wedekind & Mitchell Anderson
May 04 - June 03, 2023
What kinds of scenarios might emerge when two 'systems' of representation, codification, and visual language engage in a dialogue? With the aim of fostering experimentation, Lighthaus presents "Systems: Herta Ottolenghi Wedekind and Mitchell Anderson," an exhibition featuring works by contemporary artist Mitchell Anderson and early 20th-century artist Herta Ottolenghi Wedekind.
'Systems' proposes an unexpected exchange between Anderson and Wedekind and reflects the artists' shared interest in art-making mechanisms and the complexity of social systems that shape our world. Both artists devised a system that creates a self-generating visual model, with a deliberate lack of control and a renegotiation of the notion of the artist as a genius-creator within the composition. The exhibition addresses an anti-poetic, immediate, and contradictory perspective on art production, recalling the irreverent spirit of Dadaism. The artworks, immersed in a red room that breaks the normativity of the white cube, materialise as the direct action that follows an intuition and function as a system that establishes a direct relationship with the viewer. Active viewers, as interpreters, can establish perceptive relationships and re-imagine the conventions of their experience, within the exhibition and beyond the outside world.
On display are two recent artworks by Mitchell Anderson that exhibit a multi-stage and multi-layered composition and narrative. Through a conceptual approach to painting and the use of hybrid production techniques and methods, Anderson combined embroidery and gouache painting on raw canvas to create captivating red surfaces as contemplative objects that evoke the imagery and symbolism of colour, while challenging the notion of language as a code and words as tools. The monochromatic layers of the body of work embed and hold a text. In dialogue with Anderson's practice is the work of Herta Ottolenghi Wedekind, a prominent figure in the decorative arts movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Wedekind patented a system for creating abstract motifs in textiles using symmetrical duplication of random ink traces, which is a process similar to the contemporary 'Rorschach machine' used in psychodiagnostic tests. Her works showcase the unbridled nature of her practice, revealing connections with Surrealist and Dadaist movements and her artistic expression through vibrant forms and iridescent colours.
Text by Agnese Politi.
